Happy Halloween & Kids say...

Happy Halloween!  Ta-da!  This is the 100th post on this little ol' blog.  100 posts of craziness, right?  Ha ha.

October is great for Birthdays!

If your family is anything like mine, October is packed full of birthdays. 

I can easily think of seven family members with birthdays this month. 

And that's not including the most important birthday of all! 

Mine! 

That's right, I was born just one day shy of being a "boo baby". 

I love the story about my cousins visiting my mom and me in the hospital for trick or treat. 

And now you know why I love the month of October so much! 

Plus, my birthday is National Candy Corn day, how cool is that? 

Guess it'd be just a tad bit cooler if I actually liked to eat candy corn! 

I also share my birthday with Henry Winkler, John Adams, and Ivanka Trump. 

Go here to find out who you share a birthday with.

So, even though I'm not writing this on my birthday, I just want to take a moment to say....

Happy Birthday to ME!

Is anyone else having trouble with Hotmail email?

Ug, I am sick and tired of my Hotmail email!  I usually blame my computer, but I don't know what has happened to MSN email lately.  First, I've had this same email account since, somewhere around 2003.  And almost ten years later it is starting to really get on my nerves!  For whatever reason, the website or email account or whatever you call it is not working propperly.  Half the time I get an error notice telling me it can't connect to Hotmail at this time.  What?  You are Hotmail, and you can't connect with yourself?  I wonder if this is just a sign I need to create a new email and move on? 

Yummy: Mini Meatloaves & Mac and Cheese

You know, it's never good to find a really appetizing recipe on a blog when you're hungry!  But, that's just what happened to me this afternoon.  I opened my email from Life as Mom to find a simply yummy picture of meatloaf and mac and cheese staring back at me!  I don't think I've ever heard anyone put paprika in meatloaf, but I may have to give it a whirl.  Oh, and I have been wanting to try homemade mac and cheese for a while.  Although, I don't think it would save money to make it from scratch. 

You know, I never ate meatloaf before I was pregnant with Patty.  And I was a lot skinnier in my life before kids.  Think it could be the meatloaf? 

Written on Friday, October 26th.

Timing is Everything? Right?

I just read my post about the "all call" and realized it was a little confusing because it did not post on Friday.  I actually wrote the post on Friday, the day after the incident, but I have my posts scheduled to "publish" just after midnight on the next calendar day.  So, I wrote it on Friday, but it didn't "publish" until Saturday which makes all the "yesterday" references a little confusing.  Sorry.  I warned you I was all over the place in that post!

Ok, clear as mud, right?  As I type this it is actually Saturday morning.  But, this won't be viewable on the blog until after midnight tonight, or more accurately after 12:01 AM Sunday morning.  If you subscribe by email, it'll arrive in your inbox on Sunday, too. 

So, in an attempt to make things less confusing, I have started putting a "written on" note at the bottom of each post.  You see, at the beginning of October I set a goal to write at least one blog post every day this month and sometimes I write the post a few days before it "publishes" onto the blog. 

Written on Saturday, October 27th.

Oh Those Typos!

Here's a screen shot from my Twitter feed. 

Just ignore Donald there and focus your attention on the ABC News tweet. 

Don't you think they went "damaging winds" instead of "damaging wings"?

You can read more about Hurricane Sandy on Weather.com.

Written on Saturday, October 27th.

Update:  LOL.  Did you notice my typo in this post?  Guess this is why people like to say things like "don't throw stones"!

I am utterly fascinated by grocery budgets!

I have been following a blog called Don't Waste the Crumbs for a while now and I really enjoy it.  One of the best things is Tiffany's grocery budget and her weekly post about what she bought and how much she spent.  I do not know why it fascinates me, but it just does.  I absolutely love to see what other people buy.  I know, it's weird.  I'm inspired week after week and eventually I will be brave enough to set a grocery budget too!

I also caught an episode of TLC's Extreme Cheapskates recently where the family holds a week long fast on spending money.  I think they called it a "fiscal fast".  The idea of not spending money for an entire week really appealed to me and seemed doable.  But, instead of a week long fast, I'd like to try a spending freeze for one day each week for an entire year.  Now, some of the other money saving tactics of these Extreme Cheapskates just really kind of freaked me out.  This show goes right into the Hoarders category for me.  It's nice to watch when there's nothing else on, but I won't be adding it to my DVR line-up anytime soon!

Written on Friday, October 26th.

All Call: Holiday v. Security Threat

Let me just forewarn you before you begin reading this, I am all over the place in the post.  I feel so strongly about this, I am having a difficult time un-jumbling my thoughts so that they flow cohesively.  I hope you can make sense out of it by the end, if not, send me an email or leave a reply.  Just remember, I do not like "anonymous" commenters!

Since the dust has settled and more details have been released....I figure this is as good a time as any to voice my dislike of the "all call" phone system used by our county school system. 

Now, don't get me wrong, I don't loathe everything about it.  For example, I find it extremely helpful to receive an "all call" when school is cancelled because of something unexpected, like inclement weather.  But, the reminders that school will not be in session for a regularly scheduled holiday, like Christmas and Election Day, are truly irksome to me. 

Don't forget, this is my blog, and it's 100% my opinion.  Stop reading now if you don't like the tone of this post. 

I just find it 100% annoying to get those types of reminder calls.  I am fully capable of reading the nice, glossy calendar the school provided to us.  And, I know I'm just taking this too personally, but it feels like the school system is saying, "hey, parents, we don't think you're responsible and/or capable of raising your kids, so we just want to be sure you don't send your kids to school on Thanksgiving."  Yada yada yada.

And, yes, I do imagine there are some parents that are not responsible.  Want to know what I have to say about that?  Teach sex-ed to the high schoolers and hand out free condoms.  Sorry, that makes it sound like only young parents are not responsible, and that's simply not true, parents of all ages are irresponsible.  But, you know what?  I don't think the school system should interject itself into the matters at home (unless there is an abusive situation involved).  But that's a topic for another day and I'm getting away from the subject at hand.

So, the reason I wanted to address this topic is the "all call" made yesterday to alert parents that a threat had been made against Central High School.  I first learned of this threat as I walked Patty into her elementary school yesterday.  Her school wasn't threatened and I still considered walking her back to the car and driving her home.  You just can not gamble with the safety of even one child when a threat of violence has been made.  Now, because I feel that Patty is safe at her school, I did walk her to class and go on about my day.  But, had I thought for a second that her school wasn't capable of keeping her safe, I would have brought her home.  And that is MY choice to make, not the school system's.  By failing to notify each and every parent, the school system took a life and death risk with our children's safety.

I received the "all call" a little over an hour after I dropped Patty at school, and I now know that the call was made about 14 hours after the threat was reported.  That is simply not acceptable.  I can not believe there is no contingency plan in place to notify parents in a more timely manner for a situation like this.  For God's sake, the Paducah school shooting took place an hour car ride away from here!  In my opinion, an "all call" should have gone out before bedtime Wednesday night altering families of the situation and that there was no need to keep kids home from school.  If it wasn't safe enough for kids to be at school, the "all call" should have notified us that school was cancelled. 
But, either way, there should have been some policy in place to ensure families would be notified - in advance - and not after the fact.

I read the surfKY news coverage of the press conference and am glad to see that the school system acknowledged they dropped the ball, in a manner of speaking.  And that's the only thing I was happy about.  The article actually raised another concern: the school system didn't realize word was spreading like wild fire via social media.  Really?  I'm just envisioning school personnel riding their dinos into work yesterday.  Let me take a moment while you get your rock and chisel out.  Seriously, the folks in charge didn't realize that everyone on social media would be all over this?  Really?  OK, I will apologize for those Flinstones references, because I know they are particularly harsh.  But, I think it may be time to hire some folks who are a little better at keeping up with the latest trends.  I mean, social media has been around for a while, if you're not living under a rock, you've probably heard of it.

I will also say:  THANK HEAVENS FOR SOCIAL MEDIA, AND THE ABILITY TO GET THE WORD OUT IN A TIMELY MANNER.  Because our school system wasn't on top of it. 

I want to leave you with a little food for thought:  this is an election year.  There are three Board of Ed members on the ballot in the upcoming election.  If you're lucky enough to reside in one of the voting districts, think very carefully before you mark your ballot.  If I'm not mistaken, it is these very board of ed members who bear the responsibility of renewing employment contracts for the folks running our school system.

Did You Get the Toy Catalog This Week?

The Toys R Us toy catalog arrived in our mailbox this week.  I left it on the kitchen counter and just waited to see what would happen when the kids spotted it.  They had it spread out on the dining room floor and all I heard was, "I want that one!"  Over and over again.  They even brought it in the car for the ride to school today.  Patty was flipping through it on the ride home this afternoon and about half way home she said, "I love you, Mommy," totally out of the blue.  I'm pretty sure she was buttering me up!

Is Donald Trump Crazy?

I read on my ABC News app this morning that Donald Trump was going to make a big announcement today via Twitter.  Like, a life altering announcement, or something.  So, I finally got around to setting up a Twitter account (@mdbc77) in anticipation of whatever the Donald needed to announce.  Then the appropriate time came and went for the announcement and I am just sitting here after reading it, thinking, is Donald Trump crazy?

What's Your Favorite Time of Year?

Are we experiencing a mild "indian summer" this week with eighties temps?  Usually, I think of much hotter temperatures for "indian summer" but I think mother nature is determined to start winter on time this year!  Now that the leaves have turned and began falling, I find myself admiring all the beautiful fall colors.  Considering gray is my favorite color, even I am amazed that autumn is my favorite season.  Did you realize it was the fall before the infamous ice storm when we last saw mountains of leaves on the ground in time for Halloween?  I'm guessing all the damage done to the trees during the ice storm helped contribute to the lack of leaves in the past few falls, but it had to be affected by the unusual temperatures we've seen in the past couple years, too.  Anyhoo, I am relieved to have these nice cool temps and wonderful mountains of leaves this year!  I'm still not on board with a lot of snow for the upcoming winter, but compared with snowfall in parts of Maine, I think I can handle anything mother natures throws at us this year!

Get Out And Vote

Only a little over two weeks until election day 2012!  I know that sentence has an exclamation mark at the end, but I'm really not overly excited about election day.  I guess that's a "mock" exclamation mark!  ;-}

Ever Hear of Irrigation?

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Do I really want to know if my food is GMO?

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Snow's--a-coming this Winter!

We haven't officially passed from Autumn to Winter yet, but I read an article recently that says we should be ready for a lot of snow this year!  The kids will be ecstatic, me, not so much.  I've been sort of researching freezer cooking, and I think I need to get serious about it in case we get snowed in!

Find a Food Drive and Donate!

I know many of us are already in Christmas mode, but lets not forget that Thanksgiving is right around the corner, too.  If you're like me, you can day dream about all the yummy Thanksgiving dishes in our future.  I look forward to dressing and turkey the most of all.  And the chocolate pie.  And, well, all the other comfort food that make this meal so special.  Oh, and the dumplings!  Love the dumplings!

Hold on, I know I had a purpose for this post and I think my hungry stomach made a detour somewhere in that first paragraph!  My goal is to encourage everyone to find a food drive and make a donation this year.  If you don't know a place accepting food item donations, look no further than your local school.  Specifically the Family Resource Center.  If you have school age kids in your family, ask if their school is sponsoring a class challenge with the winning class receiving a prize for the most donated items.  At Patty's school, the winning class will be awarded with a popcorn party!  How fun does that sound?!

Here are my top three things to remember while shopping for a food drive:

1. Check the expiration dates; the further away, the better
2. Items have to be "shelf stable"; no items that need to be refrigerated or frozen
3. Double check with your child's bus driver in case there is a policy about bringing the donated items on the bus.  Remember, don't over pack your child's back pack!

1-Hour Photo Copyright Release

So, I loathe the copyright release forms at the 1-hour photo labs.  Just can not stand them.  And, I'll tell you why.  See this picture on the right?  It's a picture I took and edited for my cousin's upcoming wedding.  I printed two sets of photos without any mention of a copyright release.  Went to pick up my third set and got presented with the good ol' copyright release.  It's not a big deal.  I did take them and I do give myself permission to print them! 

But, seriously, these days you can't reasonably tell the difference between professional pictures and photos taken by an individual.  For starters, who has the right to hold a copyright?  Can I just snap a picture with my camera and automatically have a copyright?  I kind of doubt it would hold up in court. 

Plus, it kind of weirds me out that anyone is looking at the pictures I'm printing.  Not so much with these pictures, but when I print photos of the kids, I just don't like the idea of a stranger going through them.  I want an expectation of privacy.  I think there is a warning when you order your photos online about having the permission to print.  If I proceed with the online order, the photo lab should assume I have permission and leave it at that.  I have never gotten a copyright release from MPIX or Shutterfly, for crying out loud!

Site to Store

While the rest of the house is asleep, I am up early doing a little Santa shopping and trying desperately to figure out why doll clothes are so darn expensive!  And why are those "american girl" dolls so expensive, too?!  Holy cow! 
Thank goodness you can get comparable dollies at Target for under thirty bucks.  But, the clothes are just too expensive everywhere.  I think I'm going to have to learn to sew, like really learn to sew. 
I was happy to stumble upon these two sets of doll shoes at Walmart.com and ordered them for Site to Store because I love some free shipping.  Well, little did I notice that I only changed the pickup location for one of the two items.  Santa is off her game today.  Note to self: change location for EACH item in the cart!

Happy 5th Birthday, JT!

We got out his album of "first" pictures the other night.  My absolute favorite picture is the very first picture of my kids after they were born.  You know the one where the doctor is holding the ewey-gooey baby up for everyone to see just before the nurses whisk him away for a his first checkup?  If it wouldn't gross out my guests, I'd have that picture framed and hanging on the wall!

Happy Birthday, JT.  You can  have cheese for supper, if you want to!  We love you so very much.

Happy Birthday to my Cousins

Just a quick post to wish a very Happy Birthday to my cousin Amy and my other cousin Katie who share the same birthday!  Gosh, you guys are getting old!  Hope you have a great day!  ;-}

JT's 5th Birthday Party!

JT was tickled with every part of his birthday, but like any kid, he loved opening presents the most!  Bubs, I know you're turing five in a few short days, but you'll always be my baby.

3 Kinda Random Things

Realized that I never added the screen shot of the Hair Salon game that crashed my iPhone.  Well, I'm sure it wasn't the app that crashed the phone.  Heard that a lot of folks are having this happen when they do an upgrade.  I've made my peace with it, so guess it's time to move on!  This game is still a big hit around here.  I've purchased several of the Toca Boca games and Patty just loves all of them.  This hair salon one, though, is kind of scary looking!  Think it might be a good time to do a sissor check around the house.

iPhone Round Two

Well, all of the notes didn't "restore" with the reboot of my iPhone.  I just briefly opened the notes thingy, saw there were entries, and went about inspecting all of the other areas of the renewed version of my phone.  Sadly, only the "backed up" entries survived which means all of the recent notes are gone.  So much for that book list I had been laboring to create over the last year or so!

Updating My iPhone

I've tried purchasing a few apps lately only to receive this error message: iOS 4.3 required.  Not good. 

Special Ed Changes: Will We Get A Vote?

Did you see last Friday's edition of the Messenger?  Hopkins County is about to get a new Director of Special Education.  This change will greatly affect the learning path of many kids in our county. 

The Government Shouldn't Run Sesame Street

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Howdy Pard'ner!

I was plum tickled when Patty announced she was going to dress up like a "pard'ner" for Western Wear Day!  This was a first for her, other than for Halloween.  We couldn't find a cowboy hat in our price range of cheap and luckily she was ok with that.  She told me she wanted to be pink and red...so we grabbed a few bandannas and a vest from Dollar Tree to use as a template.  It took over two hours and a lot of frustration, but I was finally able to piece that cute little vest together!  It looked really cute from a nice distance!  And she wore it proudly, that's what counts!  Yeehaw!

Magnolia 1989 v. Magnolia 2012

Set your DVR for the Lifetime Movie Network premiere of Steel Magnolias!  No, this isn't the movie we all fondly remember from the late eighties.  This is a redo starring a wonderful cast of women.  I've had this movie, literally, scheduled on my iCalender since seeing a preview months ago during Drop Dead Diva.  I gotta say, I am more than a little intrigued by the remake of one of my favorite films.  Historically, remakes of eighties movies have not impressed me - at all.  But, I think this one is going to be different.  I predict this version is going to be as good as the original; it's going to make us laugh and cry, just as the first one did.  I can't hardly wait!

Hey Nick Jr, I Didn't Appreciate your Mother Funny Programming

My kids love Nick Jr.  If you don't have kids, Nick Jr is a channel with preschool age cartoons and kids shows like Umizoomis and Dora.  We often fall asleep to the cartoons on Nick Jr.  But, that's a routine we are no longer allowing in our house.

Riddle Me This...

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I Sure Hope That's Washable!

I knew something wasn't quite right when I heard Patty say the words, "I can do buzz lightyear if you want me to."  Minutes later I was greeted with these two adorable "painted" faces!  I know the marker came out of the cup with all the marker board markers so I'm just keeping my fingers crossed that it washes off.  Easily.

I guess Patty thought the face painting at the fall festival looked like a fun, do-it-yourself project.  Hmm, guess that's her very first DIY project!  Next thing I know she'll be pinning things on Pinterest!

Just Throw Your Trash Away Already!

Wow.  It has been a full day around here and it's barely noon!  Before we headed to school this morning I had already battled ants in the kitchen, hosted a burial at sea (RIP: Ola), printed coupons and updated my shopping list, and emptied and re-loaded the dishwasher. 

Getting on the Grey Bandwagon

Have you read Fifty Shades of Grey?  I haven't succumbed to the temptation just yet.  Why have I resisted thus far?  Well, reading any book requires me to funnel time away from another task.  So, if I'm going to find the time to read a set of three books, I think I'd prefer more story and less porn.  Plus, Chelsea Handler hasn't had anything nice to say about these books.  I know, I shouldn't take advice from a comedian; but I've read a couple of her books and have really enjoyed her ghost writer's work.  Not to mention that I think her show is hilarious!

For Review: September 2012

In a moment of weakness brought on by hunger, I broke my "no playland" rule one morning and took JT to a local fast food joint for breakfast.  Not only was the line forever long and sloooow to boot, we encountered all kinds of nasty in the playland.  I think it's safe to say that it had not been cleaned the day before.  The fries on the floor and old drink cup were a pretty good indication that this establishment is not meeting my expectations.  I was grossed out by the whole experience, especially the band aid in the playland.  Take off your shoes?  Uh, no thanks.  How about issuing a hazmat suit before the kids can play?